This Monday will mark seventy years since May 14, 1948, the day Isreal was reborn as a nation.

Jeanette Isabelle

L'chaim

Jeanette holds up a glass of wine. "To life!"

Jeanette Isabelle

.....

L'chaim

Happy Birthday Israel!

It's hard not to see this thread as political in light of the events happening in that part of the world. From the news I gather that the Palestinians have a different name for the founding of Israel -- Nakba, meaning the Day of the Catastrophe. This appears to indicate a very different experience that is at the heart of the unrest and deaths over there over the last few days. As I learned more about it, this matter became quite apparent to me as a political one. Since it is not the purpose of our forum to engage in political discussion, I move that we delete this thread.

I concur with the previous speaker.

I concur too. It's impossible to learn about the region and not see it as a catastrophe for the palestinians.
Best we move off this subject.
I've a jewish wife so don't bother with knee jerk 'anti-semite' name calling.
qjs

I agree with Bingley et al. I find it very hard (impossible) not to see this as political.

The purpose of this thread was to celebrate a nation's seventieth birthday.

Let's suppose, two years from now, I make a thread celebrating the 400th birthday of the Mayflower Compact. Would you write a post about Native Americans?

Jeanette Isabelle

I didn’t see politics being discussed in this thread until Bingley’s post. At that point the thread became political. We can turn any thread political if we choose to make it political.

In light of current headlines, noting the anniversary seems to be politically inspired - definitely a hot button topic.

Happy birthday, Israel! Congratulations for making it.

ETS does not exist in a vacuum. The only way this thread is not political is if one is totally ingnorant of current events.

But those events are not being discussed and so far no one has opined one way or the other.

That is because most of us are backing away from the implicit politics. We are, of course, looking forward eagerly to celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower Compact, as well as the 500th anniversary of Cortez' conquest of Mexico. How about the late unpleasantness on the Little Big Horn/ Wounded Knee?

How about celebrating 100 years of independence of my country?
https://suomifinland100.fi/?lang=en

Why didn't you say anything? Happy belated birthday!

Jeanette Isabelle

Congratulations and Happy Birthday!

And since the DNA test says my heritage is 0.9% Finnish, am I permitted to take some pride in this accomplishment?

Well, I hope it´s not too late:
Happy aniversary!
It´s a pity that you did not get the Haltitunturi. It would have been a really nice gift.

I´ll have a Koskenkorva Viina on finlands health and yours as well.

Thank you for those nice words, everyone!